A new analysis published today by Oil Change International – Lifting the Ban, Cooking the Climate - shows that eliminating existing regulations on crude oil exports could result in additional greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 42 coal fired power plants.

The analysis shows that allowing crude oil exports would eliminate a current price gap between the U.S. oil price benchmark and the global average. This increased price for U.S. crude oil on the global market would incentivize increased U.S. oil production on the order of 9.9 billion barrels between 2015 and 2050, adding more than 4.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.

“Removing the crude export ban would be a disaster for the climate. President Obama and the U.S. Congress need to stand up to Big Oil and defend the current regulations if he is actually serious about addressing our climate crisis,” said Stephen Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International.

Big Oil’s leading lobbyists from ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute have led the charge to relax the ban, and they have spending big in Washington to push their agenda. The leading proponent of relaxing the oil export regulations, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has received over three-quarters of a million dollars from the oil industry in recent years.

“Big Oil’s push for deregulation is all about profits and nothing more, no matter the consequences for our climate and communities. To push for more oil drilling at a time when our communities are facing climate chaos everyday is to deny the reality of climate change,” Kretzmann said.